US shooter's travel, phone probed for possible motive

Investigators trying to determine why a 24-year-old Kuwait-born Tennessee man gunned down four Marines are looking at his travel to Jordan last year to see whether he was in contact with extremists, reports said.

Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez opened fire on two military centers in Chattanooga on Thursday, killing the four Marines and wounding three people before dying in a shootout with police.

Authorities have said they are treating the case -- a grisly scene reminiscent of other shooting rampages at US military installations -- as one of "domestic terrorism."

The FBI has warned against jumping to conclusions about a possible motive, and said so far, there is no information directly linking Abdulazeez -- a naturalized US citizen -- to an international terror group.

But investigators are combing through his computer, cell phone and social media contacts to unearth details about a months-long trip he made to Jordan last year, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported.

"This attack raises several questions about whether he was directed by someone or whether there’s enough propaganda out there to motivate him to do this,” an unnamed senior intelligence official told the Times.

A US official who asked not to be named confirmed the Jordan trip to AFP.
Bassam Issa, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga, told CNN that Abdulazeez had moved overseas to live with relatives about two years ago.

"My understanding is recently he had come back... and was working with a company in Nashville," Issa told CNN.

The Kuwaiti interior ministry issued a statement Friday confirming that Abdulazeez was born in Kuwait and had last visited in 2010 for three weeks, but was of Jordanian descent.

The gunman had not given authorities any reason to place him under surveillance prior to Thursday's attacks, Chattanooga mayor Andy Berke said.

"We certainly didn't have any indication that he was a threat or that yesterday something was going to happen," Berke said.

- Lone wolf? -
Although no motive has been formally established so far, the incident fueled fears of so-called "lone wolf" actors -- attackers with no known affiliation to an extremist group who are extremely difficult to detect.

US media reports described Abdulazeez as having had a traditional American upbringing, including participation on school sports teams.

He graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a degree in engineering.

A woman who went to high school with him said he was a quiet kid and well-liked.

"He was friendly, funny, kind," Kagan Wagner told the Chattanooga Times Free Press. "I never would have thought it would be him."

"They were your average Chattanooga family," Wagner said.

Scott Schrader, who coached Abdulazeez in mixed martial arts, told CNN he "seemed like the all-American kid."
In an apparent blog post written Monday, Abdulazeez said Muslims should not let "the opportunity to submit to Allah... pass you by," according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist activity on social media.

The FBI said that so far, there had not been any indication that anyone else was involved in the shooting, which came just before the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

"We have no idea at this point what his motivation was behind this shooting," FBI special agent Ed Reinhold said late Thursday.

Investigators are pursuing every angle, including the possibility that this was simply a "criminal act," he said.

President Barack Obama called the shootings "heartbreaking" and asked Americans to pray for the relatives of the victims.

- 'Several weapons' -

The Marine Corps confirmed that all four victims were killed at a Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Center in the late morning. About 40 minutes earlier, the gunman had opened fire at a recruitment center several miles away.

Reinhold said Abdulazeez had "several weapons" and fired from inside his car at the recruitment center before moving to the reserve center, leaving his car and opening fire.

An autopsy will be conducted to determine how Abdulazeez died.

The Department of Homeland Security said it had ordered increased security at "certain federal facilities, out of an abundance of caution."

Two of the victims were identified Friday.

Thomas Sullivan, 40, was a gunnery sergeant from Massachusetts and local media said he had survived two tours of duty in Iraq.

"He was our hero and he will never be forgotten," his brother Joe posted on Facebook. "Please keep his family & friends in your thoughts & prayers. Thank you Tommy for protecting us."

Skip Wells, 21, was originally from Georgia and had just finished boot camp, the local CBS affiliate in Atlanta reported.